PINK FLOYD

When I was in high school I remember thinking of Mason as an appealingly amateur drummer, all those clunky yet melodic tom fills. Not a drummer's drummer but very identifiable. Actually, since I had never really listened to the Beatles, I thought of him in terms of how people talked about Ringo (idiosyncratic, playing for the song, weird catchy fills). Ringo's much better, of course.

Sometimes I'll still playing something that registers as a "Nick Mason" fill in my head, like a syncopated fill involving the toms without filling in any of the ghost notes in between accents.

That resonates, Jordan. Mason isn't a virtuoso but he has been adequate for far longer than most people. Just because one can imagine more intricate parts doesn't mean he should have played those.

Given the generally spacious nature of Floydian arrangements, maybe he was the best drummer for Pink Floyd despite not being the best drummer.

And I agree that there is a Nick style of fill. Sometimes I myself will just do that "Pat Boone Debby Boone" thing and I'm not even a little bit sorry.

Nacho Video just posted a restored version of the Secret Policeman's gig with Kate Bush and Gilmour

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1QjPIPAXIE

Kate sounds great. Gilmour's guitar... does not.

https://variety.com/2023/music/news/pink-floyd-500-million-catalog-sale-dead-or-not-1235549360/

Beeps and I went to the Pink Floyd Laser Spectacular last night at the municipal performance hall.

I've seen laser light shows in planetariums, but didn't know what to expect to see in the same room we saw "Hamilton". We had seats in the third row of the mezzanine level, which looked about right. Big screen front and center on the stage, with a lighting rig on all four sides of it.

It was all right. I wouldn't have gone had Beeps not shown some interest, and I'm not rearing to go again any time soon. There were many moments where I pictured all of us from a third-person POV, a mostly sober adult audience sitting in a dark auditorium as vectored images and words like MONEY flashed in front of us.

The Boomers came out for this one. Lot of women dressed like Emmylou Harris at the 1989 Grammies. Grizzled old men with their long thinning hair slicked back, wearing their Pink Floyd t-shirts. The announcer said before the show started that taking photos and videos were allowed, but please, no flash photography and make sure your flashlight was turned off. The man knew his audience.

(He also encouraged everyone to post their photos on the PFLS Facebook page. Another clue to the show's demographics.)

Beeps was getting a kick out of the old people getting psyched, until I told her that two-thirds of them probably voted for Trump. "These people?" she asked pointing at the biker dude with the beard and "Hammers" shirt from The Wall. "Oh, especially that guy."

I swear I've seen this show before, but maybe we've all seen this show before. Falling through an endless vectored tunnel during "On the Run". The clocks going off. Wizard of Oz on the screen during "The Great Gig." Some weird "Big Mac Tonight" caricature as "The Lunatic" running around through a man's head during "Brain Damage/Eclipse." The 3-D glasses helped move things along.

After DSotM, there was an intermission. Had to step over some puke to get out of my row. That didn't happen during "Hamilton" either.

Part II was a weird mix. Started off with "The Show Must Go On" seguing into "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and then straight into BAM "In the Flesh?" Fortunately, the Gerald Scarfe animations were kept to a minimum, though my daughter and I cringed a little when the flowers sequence for "Empty Spaces" showed up. "Young Lust" also embarrassing, with this awkward reoccurring red panty laser image ambling across the stage.

At the end of "Wish You Were Here," a photo of Syd appeared with 1946-2006. "Oh, that's nice. Wonder if they'll have –" and then the Rick Wright card came up. "Cool," I thought. "He gets left out sometimes." But then the next card was Jim Morrison. Beeps and I looked at each other. Then Janis. And then Jimi. "Oh no." "Elvis Presley, 1935-1977." "John Lennon, 1940-1980." Goddammed montage went on so long that I started yelling for Tupac at a Pink Floyd laser light show. He never showed up, but it ended with Tom Fuckin' Petty.

I sunk down in my seat even further when "On The Turning Away" began playing. No escape from this era! But honestly, the non-screen lasers were amazing. Felt like I could just step off the balcony and walk on to the multi-colored plane to the orchestra pit. At one point, the whole room looked like it was under a circus big top. (I was completely sober.)

Whole thing was surreal, like going to a concert without there being a live band. They were even selling t-shirts. It made me realize how big Pink Floyd is. Four generations of Arkansans sitting in a dark room for two hours, lookin' at pretty lights, all because of Gilmour-Mason-Waters-Wright (no, they didn't play "Interstellar Overdrive" or "Astronomy Domine.")

PINK FLOYD RULES.

https://i.imgur.com/JYOCjUj.png

excellent trip report

i can't belieeeeeve that after the syd and rick wright tribute text that they went on to jim morrison and the rest. that's just an unbelievably bad decision.

should have ended with a laser version of this
https://i.imgur.com/8hRCUMG.png

On the ride home, I was all just "What about Brian Jones? Or Charlie Watts? Where was Buddy Holly? You going to have Elvis in there, but not Buddy?"

No Otis or Sam either, but I guess they're not rock-and-roll enough. Otis sure as shit had more #1s though than that rock-and-roll star, Bob Marley, who was included.

unfortunately, the list of honored dead musicians is sorted by number of posters sold at hot topic

Where was Joliet Jake Blues then.

Forgot to mention the oldster wearing the Stetson in front of us. He looked nervous.

Sure enough, during the guitar solo of "Time," dude pulled out an IPAD.

And on that iPad, we saw this app!

https://i.imgur.com/x6L7vto.jpg

(The needle was pegged at around 90. He was gone for the second half and Beeps got to put her feet up.)

"turn it down!" is one of the rarest squares in pink floyd laser show Bingo

Almost as rare as yelling "Tupac!"

"Hey some of us are just here for the lasers man!"

thank u for the scene report pplains, wonderful

I saw a PF laser show in college, maybe 1990. I don't remember whether we were tripping or high, or just drunk. I think it very unlikely that we would have gone to it without an intoxication plan.

Great story indeed. Meantime, here's a great one from fifty years back:

50 years ago tonight, #PinkFloyd perform “dark side of the moon” with quadraphonic sound at #nyc’s radio city music hall, starting at 1am. the late dead taper harvey lubar told me that he attended this show with fellow taper jerry moore & that the #gratefuldead’s #JerryGarcia, #PhilLesh, & #OwsleyStanley sat in front of them, apparently checking out the quad system on their night off, but split at set break, before floyd played “dark side.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv9qVIzWrM4

"It was heavy maaaaaan, Pigpen had just died, too much of a bummer"

he took an iPad with a decibel meter but didn't take earplugs?

I suspect because the earplugs would have given him reason to stay instead of leaving.

Nick Mason and his All-Starr Saucerful of Secrets are coming to Australia in Sept and I am GOING with an old mate who also thinks Pink Floyd rule.

Feels good to have a ticket to see the second-best surviving member of The Pink Floyd! Figure I am extremely unlikely to see Gilmour at this point, as much as I would love this.

Also I just watched that Kate Bush / Gilmour clip and Dave's guitar sounds fkn great IMO - that's a killer performance all round

Like it really intelligently answers the question "how do you feature a guitar hero on this song that doesn't really have an obvious place for guitar heroism", I would've been beyond stoked to see that performed live

I don't know who the other guitarist is but his haircut is a glorious summation of the mid-eighties.

the bass player with the ridiculous hair is tony franklin

oh yeah he was in Blue Murder with John Sykes

....and Carmine Appice no slight to the drum god

Those prof stoned bbc sessions are fucking sick

lol I need to put that damn rar file on my old Macbook to unzip it

50 years ago tonight, #PinkFloyd perform “dark side of the moon” with quadraphonic sound at #nyc’s radio city music hall, starting at 1am. the late dead taper harvey lubar told me that he attended this show with fellow taper jerry moore & that the #gratefuldead’s #JerryGarcia, #PhilLesh, & #OwsleyStanley sat in front of them, apparently checking out the quad system on their night off, but split at set break, before floyd played “dark side.”

they got to hear the good set anyway, dsotm has never been much cop live. too bad they'd quit playing "childhood's end" by that point, they never did enough _obscured by clodus_ (i'm leaving it) material live

Goddamn it Kate now “obscured by clodus” is never going to leave me

Does anyone have a recommendation for a boot/roio wherein “Embryo” has the most over the top gilmour seagull section? I listened to Fillmore West 1970 last night and it blew me away… other 1970 renditions I found were relatively more restrained.

I had to go back to my oldest (2011) Mac to find something that would unzip that BBC RAR file, jeez

today is gonna be a Pink Floyd day

I had my first ‘how can you listen to Roger Waters’ having Floyd’s Animals going on my desk today. It did not rule.

damn this 1970-07-16 BBC "Embryo" totally RULES

I love reading shit like this, the liner notes to that Prof Stoned thing are so great

"Although mixed to stereo in 1971, 'Blues' and 'The Embryo' have never appeared on transcription disc and are assumed to have been thrown out shortly after. They were aired once in the mid-70s by a New York radio station and then captured on cassette tape by a number of fans. How the deejay in question (Alison Steele) was the only one -ever- to obtain a tape containing these two lost tracks remains a complete mystery."

and this:

"Session #10

01. Moonhead

Recorded: BBC TV Centre, London UK; Sunday 20 July 1969 between 22 and 23PM
Broadcast live: BBC1 TV 'Omnibus: So What If It's Just Green Cheese'; Sunday 20 July 1969 at 22PM
Source: off-air recording

Note: Pink Floyd was commissioned by the BBC to perform instrumental music live on the air as the Apollo 11 crew’s video and audio signals came streaming in across the emptiness of space. The song's main theme was later more or less recycled as the middle part of 'Money'. It survives only as a so-so fan recording."

Yeah I wish moonhead were as awesome as it reads like it’ll be. There’s also another boot track titled moonhead and I have no idea what the hell it is or if it’s even Pink Floyd—

https://archive.org/details/PFMoonhead/

Is that outtakes from one of their film scores or something?

Like it really intelligently answers the question "how do you feature a guitar hero on this song that doesn't really have an obvious place for guitar heroism"

i guess the answer is only let him play 3 notes on a horrible sounding rig? Running Up That Hill featuring David Gilmour sounds amazing in my head and his performance on this was too humble and a real let down.

dsotm has never been much cop live

oh, come on. sure, i'd rather have seen them do the man and the journey but dsotm at radio city very late at night sounds like a great time.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a boot/roio wherein “Embryo” has the most over the top gilmour seagull section?

you want early boots of the Jan Garbarek Quartet with Terje Rypdal on guitar tbh

but dsotm at radio city very late at night sounds like a great time.

It does, but I'm also always thinking about the workers...

https://i.imgur.com/R3IdtJG.jpg

"Oh, it's fine. Mr. Whitlock says we can close up around 3:30. That'll get me back to Queens before sunrise."

"Running Up That Hill featuring David Gilmour sounds amazing in my head and his performance on this was too humble and a real let down."

I think when Gilmour accepted that gig, he was just happy to support what was now an old friend (it was Gilmour who, over a decade before, brought the talents of a teenage Kate Bush to the attention of the industry), and he wasn’t looking to play the pyrotechnics that Pink Floyd fans expect.

This Live at Wembley 74 official release is amazing. I don’t really collect or investigate Floyd live tapes so it’s nice to hear this less slick than the pulse version.

listening to wembley right now. DAVID GILMOUR RULES

yeah he even deviates from his recorded solos a bit in it

“any colour you like” is incredible too, Wright gets a really wonderful sound going

okay I am only just now getting to the 2018 mix of Animals - it rules

What’s the diff?

tbf I wasn't listening on audiophile equipment or anything, but it all just seems to breathe a little better - like more open space between the instruments? kind of hard to put into words, it's definitely not a dramatic remix but it all feels sort of reinvigorated

he likes to say he's not a musician, but Rog sounds here and there on wembley live 74 like a guy who had played for years in a grooving band, moving fluidly around the neck and taking chances that succeed, not just root-fifth root-fifth…"money," not so much, but he's playing really really well on "time" and "Great Gig"…